Anchors for watercraft should ideally become set quickly once the anchor is dropped in the water. Numerous anchor designs have been proposed that attempt to address this problem, such as the design shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,717. Many of these designs rely on some method of weighting the tip or tips of the anchor's fluke so as to promote a tip-first entry into the bottom. Other designs attempt to shape the fluke so that the anchor will right itself when the anchor is dragged along the bottom, and therefore properly dig into the bottom more quickly.
Applicant has discovered that quick setting of an anchor may be enhanced by causing the anchor to assume the proper orientation during descent, rather than relying on reorienting the anchor once it has landed. However, self-righting anchor designs proposed to date have proven inadequate, unduly complicated, or ill-suited for smaller anchors intended for use with smaller watercraft. In addition, the prior art designs are slow to assume the upright orientation and/or have proven unreliable. For instance, the modified Danforth type anchor of the patent to Austin, U.S. Pat. No. 3,306,248, is a complicated anchor having many parts. Likewise, the spade type anchors of the patents to Billups, U.S. Pat. No. 3,067,715 and to Schrieber, U.S. Pat. No. 5,068,724, are unduly complicated. It is believed that none of these anchors have achieved commercial success.
In addition, it has been discovered that plow type anchors work well in situations where the bottom is soft, such as with sandy or muddy bottoms. Plow type anchors are characterized by a fluke that includes a plurality of side surfaces, at least two of which that are at an angle with respect to one another, and a pointed forward tip. For instance, the main part of the fluke in such anchors may be an inverted V cross-section with a taper from back to front so as to appear roughly triangular when viewed from the side. An example of this design is the anchor known as the Delta Fast Set sold by Simpson & Lawrence of England.
Despite the numerous anchor designs in the prior art, there remains a need for a self-righting anchor that can very quickly assume the proper orientation once dropped in the water from any orientation. And there is a particular need for plow type anchors having such a self-righting action.